for sojourners and exiles, dearly beloved (1 Pet. 2:11)

Defense of the Faith

In the first place, it should be directed not only against the opponents outside the Church but also against the opponents within. The opponents of Holy Scripture do not become less dangerous, but they become far more dangerous, when they are within ecclesiastical walls.

At that point, I am well aware that widespread objection arises at the present time. Let us above all, men say, have no controversy in the Church; let us forget our small theological differences and all repeat together Paul’s hymn to Christian love. As I listen to such pleas, my Christian friends, I think I can detect in them rather plainly the voice of Satan. That voice is heard, sometimes, on the lips of good and truly Christian men, as at Caesarea Philippi it was heard on the lips of the greatest of the Twelve. But Satan’s voice it is, all the same.

4 Responses

I post quotes like this to get people thinking. For a lot of folks this statement would probably sound over-the-top. And so that’s why I posted it. No matter if one agrees with Machen on various issues, I think there is some real truth to what he’s getting at.

Reading through Acts, one really gets the sense that wherever the gospel is being preached with power and authority there is certain and recurrent opposition. Now, it might have arisen for tangental reasons (jealousy, economics etc), nevertheless, it was there.

And I think we shouldn’t doubt the fact that this opposition exists today, albeit in various different forms and measures. Not the least of which, is the battle of maintaing the truth of the Gospel within the church itself.

If we’re not aware of the battles within our own ecclesial assemblies — within our own church walls so to speak — I don’t know how we can deal with things outside? The battle is already over, the breech has already been made. The citadel is taken. The enemy has won.

To be clear, I’m not speaking in ‘dooms day’ metaphor, but merely accentuating the reality of this spiritual warfare — something it seems many want to overlook or ignore.

On the one hand, I recognize that there is always resistance to the Gospel, even in my own heart when I hear it.

On the other hand, Machen was speaking in a day when undoubtedly, heretics were in the church. The PCUSA was ordaining men who confessed Unitarian Universalism. A clear breach of the walls, so to speak. But the differences between Paul’s day and Machen’s day and our day is too often flattened out.

Remember that just 5 years after the OPC (PCA at the time) was formed to break away from the PCUSA, the Bible Presbyterian Church was formed out of the OPC because the felt the OPC had “departed . . . from the historic position of American Presbyterianism.”